The Mystery of the Female Disney Animator

Wade Sampson at MousePlanet.com writes about the fascinating story of Retta Davidson, a female Disney animator who worked there between the 1940s and 1960s. It’s traditional knowledge that most women at the classic Disney Studio worked in ink-and-paint and only a few held creative positions, like Mary Blair, Sylvia Moberly-Holland and Retta Scott. That’s why it’s interesting to discover new artists like Retta Davidson who had broken into animation so early. The article has some stories I haven’t heard before, such as how in 1941, the studio attempted to train ten women as animators. By the 1950s, there were a number of women working in animation at Disney besides Davidson, including Grace Stanzell and Janice Kenworthy. It’d sure be nice if somebody did more research into this forgotten aspect of Disney history.